Hydraulic bottle uncaser



June 25, 1968 PUGH 3,389,817

HYDRAULIC BOTTLE UNCASER Filed March 2;, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet l June 25,1968 A. G. PUGH 3,389,817

HYDRAULIC BOTTLE UNCASER Filed March 2;, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet UnitedStates Patent 13 Claims. (1214-3041 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Methodand apparatus for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratablepaperboard cartons by subjecting the cartons first to the action offixed jets of high velocity, high pressure liquid, and then subjectingthe cartons to the action of moving jets of high velocity, high pressureliquid.

This invention relates to the uncasing of empty bottles. By this term ismeant the removal of the contents from a carton. In one of itsparticular aspects, it is directed to the separation of empty bottlesfrom the paperboard or cardboard carton within which the bottles aresituated.

Many means are currently available for the separation of empty bottlesfrom the paperboard or cardboard carton within which they are situated.One way is a purely manual means of lifting the bottles from the cartonsand placing the bottles on conveyor means for conveying the bottles toconventional bottle washing operations. Obviously, such manual uncasingis unsuitable in present day high speed technology.

The aforesaid uncasing was improved by the use of mechanical hands whichlifted a plurality of bottles simultaneously out of a carton anddisposed them on the aforesaid conveyor. This procedure is onlyoperative ef-..

ficiently if there is always entire free access to the carton. One wayof assuring such free access is by means of the machine disclosed andclaimed in Canadian Patent No. 673,346 issued Oct. 29, 1963 to MolsonBreweries Limited and United States Patent No. 3,158,055 issued Nov. 29,1964, to Molson Breweries Limited.

However, there remains the problem of disposal of the cartons. This hasin the past been done by means of presses. However, this is a dangerousoperation; it involves use of manpower; and it is noisy and dusty.

Accordingly, it is a broad object of the present invention to provide anovel carton uncaser apparatus and method.

An object of an aspect of this invention is the provision of a highlymechanized bottle uncaser in which the bottles and the carton areseparated from one another mechanically.

An object of another aspect of the present invention is the provision ofa highly mechanized bottle uncaser apparatus and method wherein thedisposal of the carton is automatically handled.

According to a broad aspect of the present invention there is provided,in a method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from a disintegratablecarton the improvement of continuously conveying the carton containingthe bottles along an elevated feed path; and subjecting each carton tothe action of downwardly directed fixed and moving blasts of highvelocity, high pressure aqueous liquid, preferably water.

Other aspects of each of the above described aspects of the presentinvention include the steps of removing the disintegrated carton fromsaid elevated feed path by passing said disintegrated carton across saidfeed path;

7 and continumg the conveying of said bottles along said feed path.

3,389,817 Patented June 25, 1968 By another aspect of the presentinvention, there is provided, in an hydraulic uncaser:

(i) An elevated perforated platform;

(ii) An endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above theplatform;

(iii) Means associated with the conveyor for selectively grippingbottles;

(iv) A first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles andliquid inlet means to said nozzles, and

(v) A second jetting station, spaced from the first jetting stationdownstream therefrom comprising a plurality of movable nozzles and waterinlet means to said nozzles. Preferably, the movable nozzles arerotatable or wig-wag nozzles. It is an alternative preferred aspect ofthe present invention to use 6 to 10 nozzles in series at approximately800 p.s.i.g. pressure and a total of about US. gallons/minute flow.Preferably, there is also provided conveyor means for conveying cartonsin a selected direction along an elevated feed path.

Preferably, the aforesaid apparatus may also include:

(i) Conveyor means for conveying cartons in a selected direction alongan elevated feed path;

(ii) Conveyor means for conveying bottles in said preselected directionalong the elevated feed path and disposed downstream of the secondjetting station; and/or (iii) An endless conveyor means disposed apreselected distance below the perforated platform for conveying aslurry of said disintegrated cartons to a waste disposal means.

In the latter preferred embodiment, the waste disposal means maycomprise (a) a screw conveyor, feeding (b) a baling apparatus,

(c) means for compressing the disintegrated carton, and

(d) means for recovering water separated from the compressed waste.

The aforesaid water recovery means may comprise:

(e) a sump (f) a sump pump connected to the sump (g) a nozzle disposedover the endless conveyor means (ii) and (h) a water line connectingsaid sump pump to said nozzle.

In each of the preferred embodiments, there may additionally beincluded:

(iv) Screen means below the conveyor means (ii) for separating finelydivided waste from water and for conveying the waste to the wastedisposal and the water to a storage tank, and

(v) Pump means connecting the tank to the nozzles at the jettingstations.

By another aspect of the present invention there is provided, in anhydraulic encaser, the combination of:

(A) Means for moving cartons in a selected direction along an elevatedfeed path; and

(B) An uncaser comprising:

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along the elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above theplatform;

(iv) means associated with the endless conveyor for selectively grippingbottles; and at least one of the following two jetting stations, namely;

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles andwater inlet means to said nozzles; and (vi) a second jetting stationspaced from said first jetting station downstream therefrom andcomprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles and water inlet means tosaid nozzles.

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along the elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above theplatform;

(iv) means associated with that conveyor for selectively grippingbottles; and at least one of the following two jetting stations, namely:

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles andwater inlet means to said nozzles; and

(vi) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting stationdownstream therefrom and comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzles andwater inlet means to said nozzles.

(E) Conveyor means for conveying bottles in the preselected directionalong the elevated feed path downstream of the uncaser; and

(F) Endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below theperforated platform for conveying a slurry of the disintegrated cartonsto a waste disposal means.

In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic central longitudinal cross-section of oneembodiment of a preferred apparatus and process of the presentinvention, and

FIG. 2 is a section along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

In general, the process and apparatus of the present invention involvesconveying the cartons containing bottles along a conveying stage;subjecting the cartons and hottles to a high velocity water cartondemolishing stage; conveying the bottles (essentially rid of theirlabels but not necessarily entirely free thereof) to a bottle washingoperation (not shown) and removing waste pulp preferably by subjectingthe pulp to a pulp baling stage.

Turning now specifically to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows the preliminaryconveying stage. This consists of a first horizontal conventionalfree-rollered conveyor 11, includ ing a pair of parallel side rails,only one of which 12 is shown, between which are freely-rotatablymounted a plurality of regularly spaced apart roller conveyors 13. Thecartons containing empty bottles are manually loaded onto conveyor 11and manually propelled forwardly to a belt conveyor 14.

Belt conveyor 14 comprises a driven belt having an upper carton-engagingsurface 15 and a lower surface 16 entraining on lower roller 17 and anupper roller 18, at least one of which rollers are driven. Belt conveyor14 conveys and elevates cartons from first horizontal conveyor 11 tosecond horizontal conveyor 19.

Second horizontal conveyor 19' is also a conventional free-rolleredconveyor comprising a pair of parallel rails, only one of which 20 isshown between which are freely rotatably mounted a plurality ofregularly spaced apart rollers 21. The cartons containing the emptybottles are shown as 22, and are seen to be in end-to-end contact withone another.

At the leading end of conveyor 19 is a case indexing device (not shown)whose purpose is to permit the cartons to advance to the next stage atpreselected synchronized intervals of time. Since the construction ofsuch case indexing device does not form part of the present invention,it will not be further described at this time.

The cartons are then conveyed by a conveyor to the carton demolishingstation. This station includes an open platform 39, composed of aplurality of spaced apart rods (see FIG. 2) upon which the cartons 22,and later the bottles 41 are adapted to rest and slide over.

Spaced a predetermined distance above the platform 39 is a driven,bottle-holding conveyor 42 comprising a fiighted conveyor belt 43 havingupstanding therefrom a plurality of sets of spaced apart flight bars 44,upon each of which is rigidly mounted a plurality of bottle holders 45.Belt 43 entrains a forward driven drum 46 and an upper, free rollingrear roller 47 and a lower, free-rolling rear roller 48.

Spaced a predetermined distance below platform 39 is a flighted conveyor49 comprising an open mesh screen belt 50 (preferably 4 mesh screen)having a plurality of upstanding regularly spaced flight bars 51thereon, and entraining a rear drum 52 and a forward drum 53, at leastone of which is driven by means not shown. Also associated with conveyor49 is a screen box 54, preferably made of 4 mesh screen, to retainparticles of pulp of larger size than 4 mesh.

Immediately below conveyor 49 is a vibratory screen 55, which slopesdownwardly to the rear. This screen is preferably of mesh, i.e., toretain pulp of size between 4 mesh and 60 mesh. All pulp smaller in sizethan 60 mesh falls into reserve supply and settling tank 56 from whichthe water is filtered and pumped out through outlet line 56a by pump 57driven by motor 58, for a purpose to be described hereinafter.

The demolishing of the cartons 22 and removal of the labels from thebottles 41 is accomplished by high velocity water jets. The jets areprovided by a first fixed jet 59 and followed by a second moving jet 60.Alternately, there may be a series of six to eight fixed or moving jets59, 60, the water preferably flowing at a rate of 10 U8. gallons/minuteeach at a pressure of about 800 p.s.i.g. The water emerging from jets 59and 60 may be preferably flowing at a rate of 300 gallons/minute at apressure of between about 300 and 500 p.s.i.

The movable nozzle 60 is shown in FIGURES l and 2 to be a rotatablenozzle but a wig-wag nozzle or six to eight fixed nozzles are alsooperative. The nozzles 59 and 60 are supplied by lines 61, 62 and 63. Atthe junction of lines 61 and 63 is a conventional rotatable joint 64,much as style 30 Chekson rotating joint. Nozzle 60' is caused to rotateby means of pulley 65 and belt 66 arrangement connected to motor 67 anddrive pulley 68, and a bearing assembly 69. Preferably, the nozzlerotates at a speed of 200-400 revolutions/minute.

A bottle conveyor 70, com-prising a belt 71 entraining a drum 72 conveysthe bottles 41 to a conventional soaker (not shown).

The waste pulp (derived from the demolished cartons 22 and the labels onthe bottles 41) is conveyed to chute 73 (via conveyor 51) and thence toa screw conveyor 74. The pulp is formed into a flowable slurry by meansof a Water wash from nozzle 75 flowing from water line 76. The origin ofpart of the water in line 76 will be explained hereinafter. Any pulp ofsize between 4 mesh and 60 mesh will be conveyed to chute 73 byvibratory screen 55.

Screw conveyor 74 is connected to supply hopper 77 the outlet of whichis connected to the inlet of a conventional baling press 78. Then awater press cylinder 79 provided with a piston 80 driven by a rod 81 isfitted at one end of baler 78. A sump 83 is connected to sump pump byoutlet line 84 and line 76 is connected to the outlet of sump pump 85.

Operation Cartons 22 are manually loaded onto conveyor 11 and aremechanically conveyed by conveyor 16 and propelled along conveyor 19 tocase indexing device 23. The cartons 22 are then subjected to the highpressure action of the fixed nozzle 59 and the moving nozzle 60, afterthe bottles themselves have been gripped by the bottle holders 45. Thejets of water demolish the carton 32, and also remove as much aspossible labels which may have been on the bottles 41. The bottles arethen conveyed to a conventional bottle washing operation (not shown) byconveyor 71.

The demolished carton ends up as pulp and is carried along as an aqueousslurry by conveyor 51 to the chute 73. Additional finely divided pulp isdumped into chute 73 by vibratory screen 55. The aqueous slurry of thepulp is propelled by screw conveyor 74 to the baler 78 where it iscompressed to separate the solid pulp from the water. Solid compressedpulp is periodically removed from end 82 of baler 78. Filtered water issump 83 is pumped by sump pump 85 to be used as the slurry forming waterfor nozzle 75.

Main water is provided from supply tank 56, from whence it is pumped vialine 86a and pump 57.

I claim:

1. A method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratablepaperboard cartons comprising the steps of: conveying said cartonscontaining said bottles along a feed path, subjecting said cartons firstto the action of a fixed jet of high velocity, high pressure liquid topartly disintegrate said cartons, and then subjecting each carton to theaction of a moving jet of highwelocity, high pressure liquid to completedisintegration of said carton.

2. A method for hydraulically uncasing bottles from disintegratablepaperboard cartons comprising the steps of: conveying said cartonscontaining said bottles along a feed path, subjecting said cartons firstto the action of a plurality of fixed jets of high velocity, highpressure liquid to partly distiutegrate said cartons, and thensubjecting each carton to the action of a plurality of moving jets ofhigh velocity, high pressure liquid to complete disintegration of saidcarton.

3. Method as described in claim 1 wherein said liquid is water.

4. Method as described in claim 2 wherein said liquid is water.

5. In an hydraulic uncaser:

(i) an elevated perforated platform;

(ii) an endless conveyor disposed a predetermined distance above saidplatform;

(iii) means associated with said conveyor for selectively grippingbottles;

(iv) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzlesdirected toward said conveyor and adapted to direct high pressure liquidstreams toward said conveyor to partly disintegrate said cartons andaqueous liquid inlet means to said nozzles; and

(v) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting stationdownstream therefrom comprising a plurality of movable nozzles adaptedto direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor to completedisintegration of said cartons and aqueous liquid inlet means to saidnozzles.

6. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 5 wherein said; movable nozzles atsaid second jetting station (v) comprising a plurality of rotatablenozzles and water inlet means to said nozzles.

7. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 6 including (i) conveyor means forconveying cartons in a selected direction along an elevated feed path;and

(ii) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzles andwater inlet means to said nozzles.-

8. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 7 including conveyor means situateddownstream from said second jetting station for conveying bottles insaid preselected direction along said elevated feed path.

9. The hydraulic uncaser of claim 8 including an endless conveyor meansdisposed a preselected distance below said perforated platform forconveying a slurry of said disintegrated cartons to a waste disposalmeans.

16. The uncaser of claim 9 wherein said waste disposal means comprises:

(a) a screw conveyor, feeding (b) a 'baling apparatus (c) means forcompressing said disintegrated carton,

and

(d) means for recovering water separated from said compressed waste.

11. The uncaser of claim 10 wherein said water recovery means comprises:

(e) a sump (f) a sump pump connected to said sump (g) a nozzle disposedover said endless conveyor means (vii) and (h) a water line connectingsaid sump pump to said nozzle.

12. The uncaser of claim 7 including:

(viii) screen means below said conveyor means (vii) for separatingfinely divided waste from water and for conveying said waste to saidwaste disposal and said water to a storage tank, and

(ix) pump means connecting said tank to said nozzles (v) and (vi).

13. An hydraulic uncaser comprising:

(A) first conveyor means for conveying paperboard cartons along a firstelevated feed path;

(B) second conveyor means comprising an endless flighted chain conveyor;

(C) means for regularly periodically placing a selected carton onto saidfiighted chain conveyor;

(D) means for moving cartons in a selected direction along an elevatedfeed path;

(E) an uncaser comprising:

(ii) an elevated perforated platform along said elevated feed path;

(iii) an endless conveyor disposed at predetermined distance above saidplatform;

(iv) means in said conveyor for selectively gripping bottles;

(v) a first jetting station comprising a plurality of fixed nozzlesdirected toward said conveyor and adapted to direct high pressure liquidstreams toward said conveyor to partly disintegrate said cartons andwater inlet means to said nozzles;

(vi) a second jetting station spaced from said first jetting stationdownstream therefrom and comprising a plurality of rotatable nozzlesadapted to direct high pressure liquid streams toward said conveyor tocomplete disintegration of said cartons and water inlet means to saidnozzles;

(F) conveyor means downstream of said uncaser for conveying bottles inthe preselected direction along said elevated feed path; and

(G) endless conveyor means disposed a preselected distance below theperforated platform for conveying a slurry of the disintegrated cartonto a waste disposal means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,423,342 7/1922 LoeW et a1.134-104 2,314,048 3/1943 Ladewig 134-104 2,876,488 3/1959 Zebarth134-104 X 2,916,216 12/1959 Altmann et al 24121 X HUGO O. SCHULZ,Primary Examiner.

